1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of woodworking equipment. More particularly, the invention relates to a mounting device to provide accurate positioning along two perpendicular axes and to facilitate precise measurements when performing a material removal operation on a work piece.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
The old adage among carpenters and woodworkers in order to avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes is to “measure twice and cut once”. This guideline is normally learned only through the experiences of making many mistakes in the workshop.
Woodworkers are constantly seeking more accurate, reliable and repeatable techniques for sawing, routing, milling, turning, and drilling wood. Particularly, when working with a router for accurately removing a portion of wood, and for precisely repeating the step multiple times, many others have attempted to improvise jigs and complex devices for calibrating and measuring before activating a routing tool.
Particularly challenging is the formation of joints such as dovetail joints which are used to securely join two pieces of wood together in a close-fitting and visually appealing joint. An important requirement for such a joint is that the individual cuts forming the joint are symmetrical about the ends of the two pieces. This symmetry is typically achieved by a careful set-up step commonly referred to as “centering”. Attempting to carry out this step manually without the benefit of a positioning jig requires considerable time and dexterity. What is needed is a device and procedure for simply and quickly centering a workpiece.